{"id":8883,"date":"2021-11-11T12:26:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T12:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/?page_id=8883"},"modified":"2021-12-03T02:37:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T02:37:12","slug":"interview-with-evelina-daciute","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/interview-with-evelina-daciute\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Evelina Daci\u016bt\u0117"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n<\/div>\n\n

\u201cChina helped awaken the writer in me\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
\u201cIf I were to envision my work as an action, I would see it as juggling three balls \u2014children\u2019s prose, children\u2019s poetry, and poems for adults,\u201d said Lithuanian writer and poet Evelina Daci\u016bt\u0117.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

The well-travelled Daci\u016bt\u0117, a one-time resident of Beijing who now lives in the United States, is the author of 11 children\u2019s books with one poetry book for grownups\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a collection of poetry for adults\u00a0entitled\u00a0\u017duvys fontanuose (Fish in Fountains)<\/em>.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are the boundaries between these genres of children\u2019s books and poetry for adults? Who gets to draw them? Are they existent? What does one feel when navigating between them? These are questions she still asks herself at times, she says, but she remains lucid on one key point:<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely know what it is that I want to do \u2014 I want to tell stories. Whomever they\u2019re addressed to. In the form and genre that those stories wish to be told. Poet Maya Angelou said that \u2018there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.\u2019 You write and the relief comes shortly. For the time being,\u201d she said.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

And now her storytelling is in full flow, she said, speaking ahead of her appearance in the 6th<\/sup> EU-China International Literary Festival.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I started. And I can\u2019t stop. I am happy that I can do that with different audiences, in different genres. I can see how stories can change children\u2019s attitude and their behavior, reading habits, etc. So it\u2019s easy for me to motivate myself to write new stories.\u201d<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n
Developing narratives for children<\/strong><\/h5>\n
When developing her own stories for children she feels some factors are critical, and key is that you must think about your reader while writing. \u201cAnd you must believe in your story. It has to come from some place deep in you,\u201d she said.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additionally, a good illustrator is essential she believes. She started working with illustrator Ausra Kiudulaite while she was living in Beijing and they both fully believed in a story Daci\u016bt\u0117 was working on called The Fox on the Swing<\/em>, which ultimately became an award-winning success and was translated into several languages around the world, including Chinese, published by Beijing Qianqiu Zhiye Publishing Co. It was the right time and the right people to tell the right story, she said.<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
The Fox and the Swing<\/em> is about happiness and friendship, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s also about loss. We go through a lot of losses in our life. I just want children to know that you may face loss and can live on.\u201d<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
Ms. Gao from Beijing Qianqiu Zhiye Publishing Co., Ltd said, \u201cThe Fox on the Swing<\/em> is an impressive children\u2019s book, a magical journey for kids. There are many thought-provoking sentences with profound meaning on happiness and friendship.\u201d<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
Genre switching<\/strong><\/h5>\n
As she considers the different literary genres she works in, Daci\u016bt\u0117 feels that younger audiences can ultimately be more challenging than their adult counterparts.<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
\u201cMeetings with adult readers are easier: you can be sure that even if they\u2019re bored, the audience will calmly sit in their seats until the end, they won\u2019t cause a racket, and nobody will attempt to do a headstand, or force you to do one,\u201d she said.<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
It is important to develop readers from a very early age, she believes. \u201cShow them different books with different stories and different illustrations. You have to help reveal the breadth and depth of children\u2019s literature.\u201d<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
If she comes across an occasional reluctant young reader she will \u201cagitate them, read to them\u2026 show them different books, read them poetry, help them to find their authors, their books,\u201d she said.<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
While people on the outside sometimes see switching between genres as being a major transition for a writer, for her on the inside she feels it is fundamentally familiar and somewhat similar terrain, comparing the change to a violinist who is choosing to play either Tchaikovsky\u2019s Nutcracker<\/em>\u00a0or Vivaldi\u2019s\u00a0Four Seasons<\/em>, and they \u201cdo not make much of a distinction between the two.\u201d<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Writer\u2019s block<\/strong><\/h5>\n
While the international success of\u00a0The Fox on the Swing<\/em>\u00a0was very welcome, it had its own dark side for her as a writer for a while \u2014 in the aftermath she had a touch of writer\u2019s block and couldn\u2019t write for some time.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI tried assembling new works for children, but they did not stick, it seemed like they paled in comparison to the original book. Now I understand that I had put too much pressure on myself and set the standard too high,\u201d she said, adding that at the same time she and her family had moved to a new country.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis experience posed new challenges and stress, but it also gave me a lot of time for myself and the possibility to view my own life from the side, as if it were somebody else\u2019s. A wave of poems soon followed. These poems emerged from the deep and painful recesses of my mind. Not the kind of place you\u2019d like to put yourself in, not the kind of place where children\u2019s poetry is born, but the kind that makes you scared \u2014 the place you\u2019d rather avoid, but once you\u2019re in it, you\u2019ll emerge as a different person.\u201d<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step by step, new and different works came into being. They, together with a portion of her earlier poems, are laid out in the book\u00a0\u017duvys fontanuose<\/em>, which will be published in the fall by the publishing house Dvi tylos.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n
My time in Beijing<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Daci\u016bt\u0117 lived in Beijing from 2011-2015 and looks back on her time in the city very warmly, and feels it certainly helped form her as a writer.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI loved living in Beijing. Different culture, warm people, rich culture. I even learnt some survival Chinese,\u201d she said, adding that just about the only thing she did not like was the air pollution which was high at the time.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI just loved the time I spent in Beijing. I miss it. One of my children was born there. The birthplace in her passport is Beijing, China.\u201d<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

She started to write while living in China and has developed some stories for kids about bears adapted from Chinese stories.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI am quite sure that China helped to awaken the writer in me,\u201d she said.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChina helped awaken the writer in me\u201d \u00a0 \u201cIf I were to    …\u66f4\u591a\u5185\u5bb9<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8883"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8883"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9954,"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8883\/revisions\/9954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eu-china.literaryfestival.eu\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}